1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus having a toner remover for removing toner leaked from a toner cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an image forming apparatus forms a desired image by radiating light onto a photosensitive medium charged to a desired potential to make an electrostatic latent image thereon, and transferring and fixing the latent image on a recording medium with toner. Such an image forming apparatus includes a toner cartridge for storing the toner. In particular, a large image forming apparatus generally employs a bottle-type toner cartridge.
FIG. 1 schematically shows a toner cartridge that can be attached to a conventional image forming apparatus. As shown in FIG. 1, when a toner attaching portion 10 is attached to a housing 30, a shutter 22 closing a toner supply window 20 is opened when the attachment is completed, so that toner stored in the toner cartridge is supplied to a developing cartridge (not shown). A force is applied to the toner cartridge 10 when the toner cartridge 10 is detached from the housing 30, and the toner cartridge 10 is detached from the housing 30 in the arrow direction. At this time, the shutter 22 covers the toner supply window 20 to prevent leakage of the toner.
As described above, since the force is applied to the toner cartridge 10 when the cartridge 10 is detached from the housing 30, the toner leaks through the toner supply window 20, so that the toner adheres to an outer portion of the toner cartridge 10 and an inner portion of the housing 30. The toner adhered to the outer portion of the toner cartridge 10 moves together with the toner cartridge 10 when it is detached, so that the toner drops from the toner cartridge 10, thereby polluting the housing 30, an interior of the image forming apparatus, and components thereof.
Thus, the quality of a printed image is poor and the document must be reprinted after cleaning the apparatus.